Which 22 inch to choose? Six monitors tested with reaction times from 2 to 5 ms
by Vincent Alzieu
Published on December 19, 2006
Testing the delay in displaying images
We recently discovered that all LCD monitors displayed their images later than CRTs. It goes from 2 ms on average for the fastest monitor that we have tested to 5 for the worst. It can be disturbing to have the sound before an image and it can really be annoying in games when the image displayed doesn´t correspond to the scene. Imagine an LAN game where your opponent can see you five images before he appears on your monitor.
This delay is due to 2 factors: afterglow (not too often) and the quality of electronic components (usually the main reason).
The idea behind this test is we take a lot of pictures at a very high speed in burst mode with a precise electronic stop watch (accuracy 1/1000 of second), which is displayed simultaneously on a CRT and the LCD tested. We extrapolate twelve consecutive times and eliminate the two most extreme cases. The 10 values left are reported below in a graph. To simplify the interpretation of results we add a table with the maximum, minimum and average.
Acer AL2216W
Asus MW221
Belinea 2225 S1W
Fujitsu-Siemens L22-1W
HP w22
Samsung SyncMaster 225BW
Three facts are shown by these tables:
None of the 22" monitor are extraordinarily slow and they are even faster than average. This shows that the quality of electronic components chosen by manufacturers is improving and that they no longer necessarily go for the cheapest.
If the Asus is the faster in terms of reaction time, here it’s at the same level as the others. If liquid crystals move faster and blurring is less noticeable, images aren´t displayed faster on the monitor.
Only the HP slightly stands out with a delay always inferior to 18 ms. The delay is from 0 to 1 image, which is not bad at all!
